Programs A `Godsend` For Victims, Relatives

Max Attkiss compares caring for his 70-year-old wife Helen to caring for an infant -- total dependency.

But it`s harder than caring for a child, Attkiss said: ``A baby improves but she never will.``

Helen Attkiss is one of an estimated 1.5 million Americans suffering from Alzheimer`s disease, a degenerative brain disease producing behavioral changes including forgetfulness and confusion.

Max Attkiss said the disease turns victims into ``living vegetables.``

The 74-year-old Sunrise resident said he has to do everything for his wife -- dress her, feed her, watch her every minute so she doesn`t wander out or put something into her mouth.

``It`s a heartbreaking thing,`` he said. ``It`s the most horrible sickness in the world.``

Attkiss said he has lived with this pressure for the past three years, when his wife`s sickness was first diagnosed.

Four months ago, he found some relief at the Northwest Focal Point Senior Center in Margate.

Lana Schulman, day-care coordinator at the center, said there is no help in the form of medical treatment to cure Alzheimer`s disease. The only relief, she said, is medication to relieve some of the symptoms -- and placing the patient in a routine environment.

The center provides such an environment.

In September, the Area Agency on Aging, the planning body for aging organizations in Broward County, set up two pilot programs -- one at the Northwest center and one at the Southwest Focal Point Senior Center in Pembroke Pines -- for victims of Alzheimer`s disease.

The Northwest center`s program, conducted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday, is held in addition to a weekday program for handicapped senior citizens, 60 years of age and older, including Alzheimer`s victims.

But the weekend program is only for Alzheimer`s victims and the people who care for them.

Edith Lederberg, community coordinator for the Area Agency on Aging, said at the present time, she does not know how many people in Broward County are afflicted with Alzheimer`s disease.

Part of the reason is that the illness has become a ``catch-all phrase of the `80s,`` Schulman said, used to describe people suffering from depression and senility, when in fact the only definite diagnosis for Alzheimer`s disease can come through an autopsy.

The weekend program, federally funded through Title III, the Older Americans Act, was scheduled to run from Sept. 1, 1984, to Jan. 1, 1985, but Lederberg said the demand for the program was so strong that funding was extended through 1985.

Lederberg said the Area Agency on Aging has already given an additional $60,000 to each of the centers operating the weekend Alzheimer`s program and right now, there`s no money left to extend the program to seven days.

In an attempt to extend the program, the Margate Kiwanis Club, assisted by the Margate Probus Club, is sponsoring a bowl-a-thon Feb. 3 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Brunswick Margate Lanes, 2020 N. State Road 7.

``If they had a seven-day-a-week program, it would be more than a godsend, believe me,`` Atkiss said.